This invention relates to a system for holding a pressure bulkhead and the aircraft provided with such a system.
The nose section of an aircraft fuselage comprises on one hand, a separation bulkhead between a radome which is a non-pressurized space, and on the other, a cockpit and a front technical compartment adjacent to the cockpit and below the latter, which are pressurized spaces. This separation bulkhead is more commonly called the forward pressure bulkhead.
The forward pressure bulkhead providing the separation between the spaces with different pressures is exposed to considerable loads. It is therefore attached directly to the floor in such a way that the floor picks up part of the loads exerted by the pressure bulkhead.
When assembling an aircraft, operatives have to accommodate a large number of equipment units (fittings, cables and pipes) in the volume of the technical compartment: however, the volume of the compartment is encumbered, exiguous and difficult to reach. In effect, the technical compartment contains the nose landing gear bay, which, due to its central position, divides the accessible volume into several distinct work areas, separated one from the other, for the operatives. Furthermore, on account of the size of the majority of aircraft, operatives cannot work in these work areas in a standing position. Finally, as seen above, as the floor is in direct contact with the pressure bulkhead, it is necessary to provide at least one window at floor level for the operative to pass through.
It is therefore difficult to operate in the space of the front technical compartment, and this obliges the operatives to install the different equipment units progressively, unit after unit.
This results in a long and fastidious assembly process.
The aim of the invention is to avoid scattered work areas, to increase their size and to provide a station in a standing position, at the same time ensuring that the loads exerted by the pressure bulkhead are picked up.